Welcome to the TQ Update, a quarterly newsletter dedicated to providing information and resources on teacher quality related issues.

Teaching Quality Policy Center NewsAt The 2003 National Forum on Education Policy
Stanford University's Linda Darling-Hammond
called for the creation of a NATIONAL
EDUCATION MANPOWER PROGRAM. Darling-Hammond
said such a program should be aimed at getting
well-prepared teachers into high-need schools
and at easing shortages in particular fields
such as math, science, special education and
bilingual education.
/html/meetingsEvents/NF2003/Highlights.asp?recID=29

New Center PublicationsA new ECS database provides condensed
summaries of STATE TEACHER PREPARATION
POLICIES, links to the policies and other
relevant sources of information. The database
also allows users to easily compare and
contrast state policies relative to
undergraduate, graduate, post-baccalaureate
and alternative teacher preparation programs.
http://www.tqsource.org/prep/policy/

ECS' Michael Allen recently discussed the
implications of his report, "Eight Questions
on TEACHER PREPARATION, What Does the Research
Say?" on the Colorado affiliate of National
Public Radio. A complete transcript
of the interview is now available at /clearinghouse/47/08/4708.doc.

What States Are DoingThe CALIFORNIA Commission on Teacher
Credentialing has voted to phase out
emergency teaching permits and credential
waivers. The action was taken as a step
to begin aligning the state's teacher
certification process with a recently
adopted state board of education plan
and the requirements of the No Child
Left Behind Act.
http://www.ctc.ca.gov/CCTC-NCLB.html

NORTH CAROLINA's school systems are
pairing veteran teachers with novices
who are in their first three years on the
job. The state department of public
instruction is also developing a training
packet to standardize mentoring programs
for all school districts.http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2796989p-2585891c.html

To comply with the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
Act's requirement to determine which
teachers are "highly qualified," states need
better access to data and more guidance from
the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S.
General Accounting Office (GAO) has found.
The GAO findings are based on surveys of all
50 states, the District of Columbia and a
nationally representative sample of school
districts.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03631.pdf

International FocusA publication by the Educational Testing
Service examines the policies which countries
whose students scored well on an international
math and science study use to shape the quality
of their teaching force. Among the findings are
that, unlike the United States, most of the other
countries use high school GPA and scores on
national secondary school exit exams to select
students for TEACHER EDUCATION programs.
http://www.ets.org/research/pic/prepteach.pdf

Teaching quality is part of the Teaching Quality and Leadership Institute. The mission of the Institute is to provide resources to help state policymakers shape education policy on finding, keeping and developing highly effective teachers and education leaders.